Will Cambodia’s garment sector rebound after ‘horror year’?
Kandal Province, CambodiaThomson Reuters Foundation Lon Vanna has been working around the clock for months but she doesn’t sew clothes anymore – she guards the machines in the abandoned garment factory in Cambodia where she once worked. Vanna believes the sewing machines are her only hope for saving her home and land, which she put […]
Violence at Apple supplier in India fuels fears of further worker unrest
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation The ransacking of an iPhone manufacturer in southern India could be the first of many “flashpoints” involving local workers in the supply chains of major brands, researchers said this week, pointing to a lack of rights and recourse under new labour laws. Thousands of contract workers in India’s tech hub of […]
Labour rights: Red tape, bad data and bribes endanger Mexico’s workers
CHRISTINE MURRAY, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on concerns for worker safety in Mexico…
Pandemic seen rolling back conditions in Asia garment factories
Phnom Penh, CambodiaThomson Reuters Foundation The pandemic risks triggering a race to the bottom that could push tens of millions of Asian garment workers into greater hazard on the factory floor, with women hardest hit, the International Labour Organization said on Wednesday. About 40 per cent of workers furloughed or laid off by the COVID-19 […]
“Historic” labour law raises fear Indian workers will pay price
Mumbai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation India’s parliament on Wednesday passed “historic” labour laws that the government says help workers and business alike, but activists fear a loss of labour rights in a push for profits. Experts said the laws – aimed at protecting workers and streamlining labyrinthine regulation – exempt tens of thousands of smaller firms, […]
New law to protect Thai fishermen seen boosting child labour
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Teenagers could work as unpaid interns on Thai fishing vessels in a proposed change to the law that activists fear will encourage child labour. An amendment to a ministerial regulation – aimed at protecting workers – underwent a public hearing on Thursday in answer to years of global criticism over industry […]
Brazil court rules in favor of anti-slavery ‘dirty list’
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation Brazil’s so-called dirty list, one of the nation’s most powerful weapons against slave labour, is legal and can proceed, the Supreme Court ruled this week. With the ruling, the list of companies and individuals found by labour inspectors to have engaged in slave labour overcame a legal challenge by […]
Migrant workers: South Asians seek justice as wage theft worsens under coronavirus
ANURADHA NAGARAJ, NAIMUL KARIM and BAN BARKAWI, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, report on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted migrant workers amid an ongoing struggle over their rights…
“Shocking” abuse of migrants forced to pick strawberries in Spain, UN says
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Spain must urgently protect thousands of women brought over from Morocco as essential workers to pick strawberries during the new coronavirus pandemic in abysmal conditions and without basic hygiene, a United Nations rapporteur said on Wednesday. About 3,000 Moroccan women travel to Spain, which provides more than half of Europe’s fruit […]
Labour groups slam Brazil’s guidelines for worker safety in pandemic
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation Safety guidelines for working during the pandemic in Brazil, a global epicentre of the coronavirus, came under heavy criticism on Monday by labour groups who said the rules amounted to criminal disregard for workers’ and public health. The guidelines, one set for workers in meatpacking plants and another for […]